Growing up in Newcastle in the 80s (that wonderful era of bad hair, worse clothes, the battle between Wham and Duran Duran, Rubik’s Cubes and Miami Vice), is probably at least partly to blame for my vivid imagination! I’m happily married to Vanessa and still living in the beautiful North-East of England just outside of Newcastle.

Some of my favourite authors who have helped inspire me include Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Terry Pratchett, Hunter S Thompson, Cormac McCarthy, Jeff Long, Clive Barker, H G Wells, Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Matheson and James Herbert. The King of America, in particular, was, in part, influenced by Frank Herbert’s Dune, Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, J R R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and the phenomenon that is Star Wars.  Sinema is my attempt to delve into the darkness that is inside everyone of us but, with me being such a huge film fanatic, I felt it appropriate to intertwine madness with movies.  The Killing Moon is my homage to Mad Max, I am Legend and Escape from New York. 

Some of my other interests include weight-training and rock climbing (although that took a bit of a knock when I had a bit of a tumble in 2005 which resulted in a couple of operations and a shed loada metal being crammed into my leg!) as well as being – as I've already mentioned – a bit of a film fanatic. I have been trained as a close protection and surveillance specialist and am still an executive member of the Professional Bodyguard Association.  And yes, I do also love all the socialising stuff too, but let’s try not to turn this into a CV!

The great and sadly missed comic genius and profoundly (and profanely!) philosophical, Bill Hicks was and continues to be a strong influence on me.  Here's an excerpt from his 1993 book, Love all the People.

This is a great montage trailer on YouTube to the superb film, Children of Men (warning: swearing).

Some of my favourite music (I've got quite a varied taste...!)

Johnny Cash (When the man comes around), Elvis Presley (In the Ghetto), Elvis Costello (Oliver's Army), The Jam (That's Entertainment), The Rolling Stones (Paint it Black), The Clash (Rock the Kasbah), ELO (Mr Blue Sky), Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Californication), Ray Lamontagne (Trouble), Joni Mitchell (Both Sides Now), The Prodigy (Mindfields), Ramstein (Du Hast), Rage Against the Machine (Wake Up), Pulp (Common People), The Cure (Pictures of you), Del Amitri (Kiss this thing goodbye), Deacon Blue (Dignity), Van Morrison (Brown Eyed Girl), Steelers Wheel (Stuck in the middle with you), Santana (Put your lights on), Barry McGuire (Eve of Destruction), Roy Orbison (Blue Bayou), The Cranberries (Dreams), David Bowie (Life on Mars), The Eagles (Hotel California), Nat King Cole (Nature Boy), Peter Sarstedt (Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)), The Bluebells (Young at Heart), Air Supply (Every Woman in the World), Squeeze (Labelled with Love), Then Jericho (Big Area), Carole King (So Far Away), Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon), Echo & The Bunnymen (The Killing Moon), America (A Horse with No Name) and my favourite Christmas tune...of course, The Pogues featuring the late great Kirsty MacColl (Fairytale of New York).

Some of my favourite films (my DVD collection is getting outta hand!)

Alien and Aliens, Get Carter, The Italian Job, The Wild Geese, Zulu, The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes, A Bridge Too Far, Saving Private Ryan, The Wild Bunch, The Magnificent Seven, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, Where Eagles Dare, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Matrix Trilogy, Blackhawk Down, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Silence of the Lambs, Jaws, Fargo, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Kill Bill 1 & 2, Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Layer Cake, Ronin, Scarface, Leon, Assault on Precinct 13, The Thing, Halloween, They Live, Starship Troopers, Terminator, Independence Day, Dune, Day after Tomorrow, The Abyss, Fifth Element, Equilibrium, Hero, Enter the Dragon, Dog Soldiers, 28 Days Later, From Dusk Till Dawn, American Werewolf in London, Key Largo, The Maltese Falcon, North by Northwest, House on Haunted Hill, Evil Dead Trilogy, The Warriors, Rollerball, City of the Lost Children, Crash, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sideways, Sparticus, The Man who would be King, Donnie Darko, The African Queen, It's a Wonderful Life, Walk the Line, The Breakfast Club, The Great Outdoors, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Life of Brian, Blazing Saddles, Stir Crazy, Young Frankenstein, Stripes, Weird Science, High Fidelity, Grosse Point Blank, Ferris Buellers Day Off, 40 Year old Virgin, Team America, Airplane, MASH, Scrooged, Heathers, Dr Strangelove, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Groundhog Day, Evolution, Bruce Almighty...the list goes on and on!  I told you I was quite a film fanatic!

Favourite TV (I'm quite picky about TV!)

Life on Mars, Band of Brothers, Teachers, Coupling, Two Pints of Lager, Shameless, Cold Feet, Space Above and Beyond, Battlestar Gallactica, Supernatural, Dexter, Time Gentlemen Please.

Favourite Comedians

Bill Hicks, Ricky Gervais, Lee Evans, Eddie Izzard, Al Murray, Bill Bailey